How do you tell a story without words? If you’ve ever been embarrassed by how bad you are at charades, you’ll know it’s no easy feat. But choreographers have been doing it for centuries – sometimes with mime but also without, giving dance its own eloquence. They’ve sought inspiration from a remarkable range of sources – whether folktales, literature, real life or their own imaginations.

The most longstanding literary ballet must be Don Quixote. Miguel de Cervantes’s novel, published 1605–15, has been inspiring ballets since at least 1743, when an unknown choreographer mounted Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse for the Paris Opera. He was the first of many, though the version with the most longevity has proved to be Marius Petipa’s 1869 version (used by Carlos Acosta in his production for The Royal Ballet). Balletic Don Quixotes tend to sacrifice Cervantes’s philosophical consideration of the human condition for a cheerful rendition of one of the novel’s many absurd episodes – in Petipa's, where Don Quixote helps two young lovers get together despite the wishes of her parent.

Another of the oldest ballets still going strong is Jean Dauberval’s 1789 La Fille mal gardée (though modern audiences know it best through Frederick Ashton’s 1960 version). Unlike Don Quixote, the origins for this are entirely obscure – suggested sources includes an opera of the same title but with a different story and different music, or an 18th-century print of a mother scolding her child. Slim pickings indeed. You might recognize the story, though: Lise loves impoverished Colas; Lise’s mother wants her to marry wealthy Alain; the lovers find a way (this time without a wandering knight's help) to get the mother to forget Alain and give her blessing to their wedding.

In fact, much like commedia dell’arte, 19th-century ballet tended to use the same recognizable characters in different contexts – a handy tool for audiences to figure out what’s happening. In a ballet fantastique you could expect to find the hero, the good woman, the bad woman and various mischievous magicians to keep the plot going. Petipa’s 1877 La Bayadère is a prime example. He took his story from the ballet Sacountala, created by his brother Lucien in Paris in 1858, which itself was based on a 5th-century Sanskrit play by Kālidāsa. None of that really matters, though: all it adds is local colour for a story where the demure Nikia loves the heroic Solor who is tempted by the extremely bad Gamzatti who, with the help of the scheming High Brahmin, eventually brings about her and everyone else’s deaths, with the lovers united in paradise.

'The music of Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) baffles verbal description...it has no relation to music at all as most of us understand the word'. So ran a 1913 review in the Musical Times of perhaps Igor Stravinsky's most iconic ballet score. Still, despite initial criticism and the much-discussed 'riot' at the premiere, Stravinsky's contribution to dance has proved to be a considerable one. With The Royal Ballet's Rite of Spring returning to Covent Garden this Season, we thought we'd take a look at a few of the composer's other wonderful ballet scores:

From its eerie opening with chromatic low strings to its glowing and exultant finale, The Firebird is a masterpiece of a ballet score. It was the first of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes productions to have a completely original score composed for it, and with its folktale-inspired narrative, the piece was originally intended as a Russian nationalist ballet. A number of different versions of the score exist, including at least three orchestral suites for concert performance – the first of which had its premiere in 1911 – which have led The Firebird to become a popular concert work as well as an acclaimed ballet. Stravinsky had been Diaghilev’s second choice as composer for the score of The Firebird (he originally wanted Anatoly Lyadov) but the success of the premiere made Diaghilev realize that he was onto a good thing in working with the 28-year-old composer. ‘Mark him well’, Diaghilev told ballerina Tamara Karsavina, ‘He is a man on the eve of celebrity’.

This ballet about a peasant wedding had its premiere in 1923, but Stravinsky first conceived the idea of it in 1913, while working on The Rite of Spring, and he originally planned the work for a similar-sized expanded symphony orchestra. Stravinsky rewrote Les noces several times – one of his versions was scored for roll-operated instruments including pianolas, however this was abandoned when the Parisian piano firm constructing some of the instruments repeatedly delayed delivery. Les noces's score is written for four solo singers and chorus as well as instruments. Stravinsky writing the libretto himself, using lyrics from Russian folksongs. The ballet has an extraordinary sound world: in place of an orchestra, Stravinsky eventually scored the work for a vast battery of both tuned and untuned percussion and no less than four grand pianos.

The first of several collaborations between Stravinsky and Russian/American choreographer George Balanchine saw the composer inspired by 16th and 17th century French baroque music, in particular works by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The youthful 24-year-old Balanchine took visual cues from Stravinsky's music, later writing that when he heard the score, all he could see was pristine white. Such was his clout at the time of the 1928 premiere, that Stravinsky had a great influence on the ballet's choreography - wanting a classical style of dance to match the serenity of the music. 'Dancing is music made visible,' Balanchine later quipped, in one of his oft-quoted and trademark Balanchineisms.

Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, the score used for 'Rubies' from Balanchine's Jewels, had previously featured as the score for a ballet by Leonid Massine twenty years prior to Balanchine’s choosing it for his 1967 triptych. Still, the piece took on a new life as part of one of Balanchine's most acclaimed ballets. Stravinsky composed Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra from 1926 to 1929 while living in France – he had settled there after the Russian Revolution made it impossible for him to return to his homeland. It was intended as a 'breadwinning' piece, with a virtuosic piano part that (naturally) Stravinsky hoped to perform himself. Capriccio was influenced by the Romantic German composers Carl Maria von Weber (who Stravinsky termed ‘a Prince of Music’) and Felix Mendelssohn, and is a contrast to the composer’s early Russian-infused works, and even his 1928 ballet Le Baiser de la fée (which was inspired by the music of Tchaikovsky). However, despite its neoclassical style Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra sounds distinctly modern, with almost jazz-like tinges to the music. Balanchine’s joyous choreography provides plenty of visual sparkle and pizzazz, giving the piece, transformed into the ballet ‘Rubies, an almost Broadway-esque appeal.

Frederick Ashton was inspired to dance at the age of 13, when he saw a performance by the legendary Anna Pavlova. He went on to become one of the most distinguished choreographers of the 20th century, creating more than a hundred ballets over an illustrious 60-year career.

His most celebrated works include La Fille mal Gardée, recently screened live around the world as part of the Royal Opera House Cinema Season. A quintessentially English ballet based on Ashton’s beloved Suffolk, it is famous for its clog dance and choreography involving ribbons.

Although his choreography is often said to embody the elegance and lyricism of English ballet, Ashton was actually raised in South America. Born in Ecuador in 1904, he spent his childhood in Lima, Peru, until he was sent to an English boarding school at the age of 14. He started dancing at 20, attending classes on Saturday afternoons with renowned dancer and choreographer Leonid Massine. He went on to train with Marie Rambert and Bronislava Nijinska, choreographing his first ballet, A Tragedy of Fashion, when he was just 21.

View our gallery of production images from Ashton's works, past and present:

Over the following years, he created numerous works for both Rambert and Royal Ballet Founder Ninette de Valois, becoming principal choreographer of the de Valois’s Vic-Wells Ballet in 1933. He also distinguished himself as a mime and character dancer in productions such as Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty.

Ashton choreographed his first ballet for the Covent Garden main stage, Symphonic Variations, in 1946, and went on to create numerous ballets for the famous partnership of Margaret Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, such as Marguerite and Armand. In 1970, his last year as Director of The Royal Ballet, he created the popular The Tales of Beatrix Potter:

The Frederick Ashton Foundation was launched in 2011 to preserve the legacy of Ashton, and his work continues to form a key part of The Royal Ballet repertory. View our archive gallery of Royal Ballet events featuring Frederick Ashton.

In a jubilee year, it's perhaps appropriate that Frederick Ashton's Birthday Offering returns to the stage of the Royal Opera House. The ballet was first created in 1956 to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of The Royal Ballet (then Sadler's Wells Ballet) as well as a tribute to the company's founder Ninette de Valois. The ballet will be performed alongside another work by Ashton - A Month in the Country - as well as Bronislava Nijinska's Les Noces.

Rather than following a narrative, the ballet offers a showcase of the dancers' technical skill with a series of solos, duets and ensemble pieces. In the 1968 revival, Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev danced roles in the ballet.

A Month in the Country is an adaptation of the Turgenev play of the same name, a poignant tale of infatuation. A Covent Garden favourite, over the years it has starred the likes of Sylvie Guillem, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Darcey Bussell. The work was dedicated in part to Bronislava Nijinska, the choreographer of Les Noces, the work that rounds off this mixed bill.

Distinctly Russian in flavour, Nijinska's Les Noces was originally premiered by Serge Diaghilev's legendary Ballets Russes. It features a modernist score by Igor Stravinsky and is another example of the composer's fascination with ritual, which was evident in The Rite of Spring. With Les Noces however, human sacrifice is swapped for wedding rituals - from the consecration of the bride and groom to the celebratory feast.